For 140 years, the bishops of the Anglican Communion have come together every ten years or so and for most of that time the gathering has been the only visible evidence of the unity of the Communion. This summer it will provide evidence as well of disunity; as many as a quarter of the bishops have declined their invitations from the archbishop of Canterbury, refusing to sit down with other bishops whose theology they have condemned.

When the first invitations were sent out, in 1867, it was the pious hope of the archbishop of Canterbury that nothing like that would happen. He had yielded reluctantly to pleas from the Canadian Church which was concerned by recent decisions of the Privy Council and felt a need to clarify their status. But archbishop Longley wanted it understood, "That at this meeting no declaration of faith shall be made, and no decision come to which shall affect generally the interests of the Church, but that we shall meet together for brotherly counsel and encouragement.”

In the event, a bare majority (76 of 144) bishops came to meet with archbishop Longley, in Lambeth Palace. Even the archbishop of York stayed home, doubtful of the value of such a gathering. Archbishop Gray of South Africa attempted to rattle the tea cups with a request that the conference affirm his deposition of the Bishop of Natal, John Williams Colenso, whose free-thinking ways had led Gray to attempt to replace him with someone more orthodox. The Conference in its wisdom referred the matter to a committee and went home after three and a half days without waiting for the committee to report back.

But the bishops had enjoyed their meeting and met again eleven years later, still with a limited agenda. By 1888, however, they were beginning to feel that they should use the opportunity to come to a common mind on significant issues. They endorsed a recent statement of the American Episcopal Church setting forth four essential elements in any ecumenical relationships: Bible, Creeds, Sacraments, and Bishops.

The history of the Lambeth Conference

Our historical guide traces the origins and issues that dominated the agenda at past Lambeth conferences

From the Times Archive, 1867

The first Lambeth Conference had its issues, but participants hoped future meetings would evoke the same fraternal spirit

• 1920 Conference: Birth Control

• 1958 Conference: Family Planning

• 1978 Conference: Ordination Of Women

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This “Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral” remains a central definition of Anglican identity. The bishops also responded negatively to questions from missionaries in Africa about the possibility of baptizing polygamists. The wives might be baptized, said the bishops, if the local community would accept it, but not the husband. It was the first significant statement they had made about sexual issues and, like many of the others, would eventually, one hundred years later, be reversed.

With the twentieth century, issues of marriage and family life were concerning the bishops.

They deplored the growing “disregard of the sanctity of marriage” and agreed that those who were divorced could not be remarried in the church. Birth control, abortion, and the opium trade were also condemned.

Although the 1908 conference had rejoiced in the “increasing willingness to settle difficulties among nations by peaceful methods” the next gathering had to be postponed because of World War I. In 1920 the bishops continued to condemn birth control and linked it with prostitution, calling on governments to end “the open or secret sale of contraceptives, and the continued existence of brothels.” They agreed that women (who had just been given the right to vote in Great Britain and the United States) could be admitted to any office in which a layman might serve. Nevertheless, it was nearly fifty years before the American Episcopal Church agreed that women might serve on vestries and be elected as deputies to its General Convention. Lambeth conferences can pass resolutions but the separate national churches are free to disregard them.

The 1940 conference was postponed because of the Second World War and the first post-war conference, in 1948, broke no new ground. In 1958 the bishops took a positive look at marriage in a statement that said marriage is a “vocation to holiness” and the idea of the family is “rooted in the Godhead.” “Consequently, the bishops agreed, “all problems of sex relations, the procreation of children, and the organisation of family life must be related, consciously and directly, to the creative, redemptive, and sanctifying power of God.” Family planning, they now believed, is “a right and important factor in Christian family life,” which meant either that they had been wrong in 1920 or that the times had changed; perhaps both were true. They were not ready to think about ordaining women but resolved, paternally, that “fuller use should be made of trained and qualified women, and that spheres of progressive responsibility and greater security should be planned for them.”

When the bishops gathered in 1968 they found that the pope had condemned birth control and took the occasion to suggest that the pope was mistaken. That meant, of course, that they had been mistaken themselves 48 years earlier, but Anglican bishops have the right to be wrong and to reverse themselves if need be.

The 1978 conference, unable to reach a common mind on the ordination of women which had already taken place in several places, pleaded for “patience and sensitivity.” They also called for “for deep and dispassionate study of the question of homosexuality, which would take seriously both the teaching of Scripture and the results of scientific and medical research.” But the Lambeth conference cannot compel the churches to act and the lack of “deep and dispassionate study” of sexual issues, combined with a rapidly increasing representation from conservative third world churches led to increasingly angry debate and a resolution at the 1998 conference that they could not “advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.” They called for a “Listening Process,” but some churches moved ahead anyway while others, refusing to listen, began to come together in opposition to any change.

The 2008 Lambeth conference comes less than two months after a gathering of over 200 Anglican bishops in Jordan and Jerusalem, many of whom will not be at Lambeth on principle. Not since the first conference have so many refused to attend and, once again, the archbishop of Canterbury is hoping that resolutions can be avoided. The Book of Revelation tells us that the faithful will be united hereafter in worship; lacking central authority or a doctrinal statement, the churches of the Anglican Communion have attempted to make that vision a present reality. Whether the Anglican bishops have sufficient faith and love to accomplish that remains to be seen.

— Christopher L. Webber is a priest of the American Episcopal Church currently serving in the Diocese of Connecticut. He is the author of numerous books including Give Us Grace; an Anthology of Anglican Prayer and Beyond Beowulf, a modern sequel to the Anglo-Saxon saga

www.episcopalmajority.com.